A common perception of what makes a business successful is as follows: the leader is a genius who has a vision, defines the strategy, and all the employees work to make that vision into a reality.

The reality, however, is far different. In the best-selling business book, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t,” by Jim Collins, a team of researchers discovered that the most successful leaders focus on getting the right people on board before they set…

Do you need showroom traffic? Of course you do! This week on Think Tank Tuesday learn how to drive your virtual showroom traffic. Leave Your Comments below the video and Share it Please.

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It’s not a new idea to have one of your salespeople working the service drive. Opportunities and circumstances exist where it may be beneficial for the customer to trade-in their car that needs to be repaired. Having someone who can not only identify those opportunities but who also knows how to present it to the customer…

Lady Gaga has her Little Monsters, Justin Bieber has his Beliebers, Kiss has their Kiss Army, and your dealership has ______? Where are your fans? Musicians focus their marketingon connecting with fans, that’s nothing new, but that approach is grounded in solid business sense. A 2010 Satmetrix study found that evangelists or fans, spend 13% more than the average customer, and they refer business equal to 45% of the money they…

There was a fascinating article in Automotive News which discussed a new trend that many dealers are adopting: placing their service departments at the front of their…

Stressed about your Online Marketing Strategy? Don't know what you should be tracking and what benchmarks to measure? Then watch this week's Think Tank Tuesday Video, Leave Your Comments below the video and Share it Please.

Dealerships today spend most of their marketing budgets on acquiring new customers. Those ads in the newspapers aren’t really meant for current of past customers, they are meant to attract new customers. The cost of customer acquisition ranges from…

You may be wondering why the president of a dealership management system (DMS) company is talking about CRMs. It’s not because I want to sell you a CRM. It’s because one of the most frequently asked questions I get from customers is, “What do you think about such and such CRM?”

The first thing I always answer is, “Why do you want to switch?”

The reasons I get vary and often include: “Well, our new Internet Sales Director thinks that CRM is better,” or “Our…

It's creepy but oh so sexy! What are we talking about? Here's a hint: It has to do with how you…

In today’s world of constant noise, it’s more difficult than ever to market your dealership. Dealers are constantly trying to guess where the best ROI is when considering how to spend marketing dollars. How much money do I invest in traditional marketing? Online marketing? Direct mail marketing? The rep from each medium…

DID YOU AUTHORIZE YOUR INVENTORY TO BE POSTED ON ANTI-DEALER OR HOSTILE WEBSITES?

5:00 AM and the Alpha Dawg is on the…

Does your dealership have a process in place for a quick transition from the sales floor to the finance dept?  Are your customers waiting for a hour or more to get into the finance office?  Does your F&I producer come out to meet the customer before the consumer get's to his/her office?  Ladies and gentleman I could go on and on with questions that I talk about with automotive managers and what we find is very concerning.

First, the transition from the sales floor to…

I was talking with a GSM today and he had no idea how many calls his coordinators were making per day.  Equally relevant, is that I talk with people that have positions of authority in the dealership all the time and it's unfortunate to see the majority have no clue when it comes to their E-Commerce Dept. …

Is your dealership successful or is it wildly successful? Are you a good leader or a great leader? And if you are merely “good,” but desire to be “great,” what does it take to make that transition?

I have been revisiting the best-selling business book, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t,” by Jim Collins. In Chapter 1, he posits that good is the enemy of great. Meaning that if you are good, it is often difficult to become great because it’s so…

Watch this week's Think Tank Tuesday to learn how to tailor your marketing strategy to help turn your customers into clients.

Albany, N.Y. – April 29^th, 2013 – Auto/Mate Dealership Systems (http://www.automate.com) announced today that the company has been recognized with a “Top Workplaces in the Capital Region” award by the Albany Times-Union newspaper for the second year in a row. Auto/Mate was featured in the “Small Workplaces” category for companies with 35-149 employees.

“One of the best ways to create a successful business is to…

The Social Media Statistics for 2013 across Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest provide us with an interesting opportunity to review where we may want to spend our social media dollars and time in the coming year. Quicksprout recently published the below infographic outlining the major differences between the three…

Did you know that understanding your shoppers could make a big difference in what your bottom line is? What does online advertising mean to you? Do you how to deliver the proper message to your customers online? Watch this week's Think Tank to and find out how you can stop missing your opportunity to sell more.

Can efforts to capture customer loyalty be thwarted by employee loyalty?

Evidence gathered from top retail groups, including auto dealerships, indicates that employee loyalty directly affects customer loyalty and thus business results.

Dealer operators and their…

ALBANY, N.Y. – April 22^nd, 2013 – In a recent survey conducted by Auto/Mate, more than 100 dealers were asked what the most important consideration was when choosing a new Contact Relationship Management (CRM) system. Whether the system integrates with their dealership management system (DMS) was ranked as the most important, with cost being the second most important consideration. To guide dealers through the…